Guest Post: Kate from Twenty-Six to Life

Oh. my. goodness! I am so excited to have the very first guest post on our blog! Kate from Twenty-Six to Life was gracious enough to not only do a post for me – but she’s also letting me do a guest post on her blog – ON HER BIRTHDAY! So please give her lots of love here and then head on over to her blog and give me some love there!!

Without further adieu, here’s Kate (the birthday girl)!

Hi! My name is Kate. I blog at Twenty-Six to Life about all sorts of stuff like DIY, my dogs, and (my attempts at) dieting. Super huge big THANK YOU to Emily for having me as a guest blogger today. I’m excited to be blogging in a new space about one of my favorite projects.

Since you have no idea who I am, here’s a picture of me hanging out at the beach.

I look so happy and relaxed don’t I? A beach will do that to you. Unfortunately it’s not possible to be so happy and relaxed all the time. Say for example… when you’re building a bed!

I’ll start with the finished product first. Here’s the bed that I built based on the plans created by Ana White.

As great as it looks now, it took awhile to get it there. The first step was creating the “shell” of the bed, which is essentially three large bench pieces with huge cubby holes.

Next came building the drawers and adding trim. The Ana White plans don’t call for trim on the faces of the drawers, but I think the trim makes it look more finished. Not to mention, it hides flaws!

Lastly, it was time to prime and paint all of the pieces. I built a king size bed, so the “shell” and drawers are all really big. The pieces for this bed pretty much filled up any usable space in this 2 car garage.

Since building the bed a few people have talked to me about doing something similar on their own. I am 100% in the “Go For It!” camp, but I did learn a few things along the way that might help if you decide to undertake a similar furniture building project:

Pilot holes are your friends.

Your math will always be inexplicably wrong. (apparently two plus two equals four and a smidge)

You will need to touch up the paint once it’s in place, no matter how careful you are.

Drawers suck. A lot.

Sanding sucks. Even more.

Measure twelve times. Cut it too long. Measure again. Cut off a little more. Repeat as necessary. The piece will still not be the length you thought it was supposed to be, but it will fit. Go with it.

When you finally get to sleep on it, it will be the best sleep ever. Because you’re so tired.

Always accept help when its offered. If it’s not offered, resort to bribery. A free meal will buy a lot. It’s worth it.

Always have another battery for your drill charging. If you have it, you won’t need it, but if you don’t, you will.

Trim will hide a lot of mistakes.

Do not, under any circumstances, say you will be finished by X date. You won’t be finished by then. Not even close. Just be happy with the progress you’ve made.

Done is good.

Really good.

Before doing this project I had never considered building my own furniture, but it’s incredible to know that it can be done. I’m so happy with how it turned out, and it’s pretty comfortable too.

7 Responses

Really nice job! The end result looks just like something you could buy in a high end store. My favorite part is the list of things you learned at the end. I’ve learned a couple of those lessons on my own as well.